“No rush” for Virgin Australia fleet plans

Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti says his airline is in “no rush” to decide on the airline’s future fleet plans, which includes an evaluation of the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350.

“Sometime over the next 12 months we’ll be evaluating what kind of fleet we’ll have post 2017-18 onwards, and we’re still in that process, but really there’s no rush, we’ll sort this out over the next six to 12 months,” Borghetti told the Virgin Australia annual results press conference in Sydney on Friday.

Borghetti flagged at last year’s financial results announcement that Virgin Australia would be undertaking a review of its fleet plans, including studying the A350 and 787.

As at June this year the airline operates 133 aircraft, and an investor presentation chart that accompanies the results announcement notes that number will grow to 149 by June 2016, with nine net 737-800s added, the last three 737-700s retired, two more A330-200s and 11 ATR 72s joining the fleet, with the 777 and E190 fleets remain static (at five and 18 respectively).